150 Yarra Floods. 



without a large outlay of capital, in whatever direction it 

 may be formed. It therefore becomes a question for serious 

 consideration, whether it would not be prudent to select such 

 a site for the channel as would admit of the course being, at 

 least ultimately, converted into a highway for the transit of 

 shipping to and fro, between Hobson's Bay and the Queen's 

 Wharf. If such a line of channel can be selected as will be 

 most suitable both for discharging the flood- waters and for 

 the passage of shipping, there can be but little doubt that 

 that route ought to be adopted. The plan which accom- 

 panies this paper, shows the route which I consider the most 

 suitable for both these purposes. 



The suggestions for making a^ canal from Prince's Bridge 

 through the Sandridge lagoon into the Bay, and that for 

 cutting a canal from the former point and by way of the 

 swamps east of Emerald Hill through the St. Kilda Park 

 into the Bay, are open to the objection, that neither scheme 

 offers the inducement of a ship -canal, with docks at Mel- 

 bourne. Both of these routes are intersected by the St. Kilda 

 railway, and therefore the communication for shipping be- 

 tween the Bay and Melbourne, under either plan would be 

 severed. Even if the shipping could traverse the St. Kilda 

 railway, there is no site at Melbourne where docks could be 

 constructed within reach of either of these artificial chan- 

 nels. It would not be possible to construct an entrance for a 

 canal or for an embouchure for flood- waters, at one or other 

 of these sites, that would not surely and rapidly be choked 

 with silt and sand. At the Sandridge lagoon site, the extent 

 of sandy foreshore is not so great as at St, Kilda. There is, 

 however, sufficient deposit there to afford strong grounds for 

 believing that an opening through the beach made at that 

 point would be speedily blocked up by sand driven along the 

 shore by southerly winds. The sands thus deposited at the 

 mouth of a canal disemboguing at that point, could only be 

 removed by dredging, or by some other artificial means. 

 Irrespective of the large annual outlay required in dredging, 

 it has not yet been shown that it would be practically possi- 

 ble to preserve an outlet channel that would be constantly 

 available for the discharge of flood- waters. Whatever dis- 

 advantages the Sandridge' lagoon outlet possesses in this 

 respect, they appear to me to be much greater in that sug- 

 gested at St. Kilda. From the length of the channel, 

 the cost of construction, the difficulties attending the 

 formation of the outlet into the Bay, and the expense 



